


An unexpected Result

by eyalfass



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Fantasy, Non-Graphic Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 23:15:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,610
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22513858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eyalfass/pseuds/eyalfass
Summary: Arrogance and stupidity will have consequences
Kudos: 1





	An unexpected Result

Naves was playing again…

Jadwen was walking down the corridor, the latest missives from Shadowhome tucked in the binder under his arm, when he heard an anguished scream coming from the ambassador’s private chambers.

Face twisted in distaste, the undersecretary proceeded on his way, why, in the name of the seven dark lords of the frost, was Naves sent to fill this post. Four months the man was there, and all Jadwen ever saw from him was selfish, lazy, venal arrogance. He knew Naves was connected somehow to the Shadowlord, the highest minister and chief adviser to the shadow king and presumed that this plum assignment was his reward for a great service, or perhaps, a way to get the cretin out of the royal court he thought in his more jaded moments.

Another scream pierced the air, even more horrified and desperate, Jadwen had a passing pang of, well, not exactly sympathy, for whatever poor slave the ambassador was abusing. And then, suddenly, he stopped in his tracks.

As undersecretary, Jadwen had an excellent memory, and he knew everyone assigned to this embassy in the Capital of the Great Empire. From the ambassador to the lowest slave brought in, by portal because any slave going through one of the city gates would have been released immediately, and his owner ejected from the city if he was lucky, fined and imprisoned if he was not. He knew them all by sight, smell and, most importantly for this moment, by the sound of their voice, and this was no one he knew, which meant either the ambassador brought in some toy from home, or….

Horror colored Jadwen’s face pasty white, surely, not even Naves would be stupid enough for this, surely not…

With an urgency brought by terror, Jadwen rushed down the corridor and tore open the door in front of him, remembering, even in his current state of mind, to send the mental command to the sentry outside to prevent it from animating and striking him dead. And then stood in the door looking with a sense of doom at the scene in front of him.

\------------

Naves was ecstatic, he’s been here for months now, in this orderly, clean, disgustingly well-behaved city, where all his usual pleasures and privileges were denied to him. What use being a noble and not able to lord it over the common folks outside these gates, where could he find the pleasure of forcing a sobbing daughter of some minor functionary to do his bidding, preferably while her parents watched. And his powers forced them to nod approvingly, even laugh and cheer as he slowly abused and broke his victim.

Now that he had this plaything, he was going to take his time with her. So far he did no more then caress her with the very tiny glimpses of his Talent, he was careful not to break the skin, but her blouse already hung in tatters from her body, and her skirt was torn into ribbons, showing unblemished skin unlike any pleasure slave or peasant girl he ever forced. These Imperials really did pamper their lowborn.

He remembered seeing the girl walking by his carriage the week before, she did not seem impressed by the crest of the Shadow on the doors, nor did she design to answer his compliments to her beauty and his invitation to ride with him , she just stared at his black and blue mantle of office, then turned aside with a grimace and continued talking to her friends. As if she was his equal and had right to refuse his wishes. If it wasn’t for the busy street and two imperial guards “escorting” his delegation, he might have done something right there and then about that disrespect. But he was always a cautious and wise man, and his instructions from his uncle, the Shadowlord, to stay out of trouble on this posting were clear in his mind. The old patriarch of his clan always looked at Naves without much favor, but his father just came back from the tundra of the south west loaded with riches and slaves from his successful campaign there and so the powerful minister had to show some sign of approval for his household. And this posting was just vacated.

Well, enough musing, thought Naves as he summoned his Talent to cut another strip of the girl’s blouse, he knew his razor sharp cut did not leave a mark on the skin, but the girl would feel the pain as if she has been cut with acid. Indeed, this was one of his favorite forms of play, cut a woman from head to toe until pain and humiliation made her dough in his hands. Only then would he take her, as was his want…

Suddenly, his musings were interrupted by a loud crash, half turning around he saw the old and dusty undersecretary who run this embassy day to day operation stand in the doorway to his private chambers. With a look of undisguised horror on his face. Naves’s temper flared at this rude interruption of his amusements and he turned in rage to the unwelcome visitor to his doorstep.

“what is the meaning of this intrusion! I left strict orders not to be interrupted! Do you wish to be flayed from head to toe and fed your own skin while you lay boiling in a vat of acid?” screamed Naves!

The old man did not even look at him, instead he looked down at the girl, who tried to hide her partial nudity from this new, grim, figure while she was curling into a corner of the sleeping furs on the floor. Her fear and terror mixed with the pain she was still feeling from the multiple applications of Talent she had endured for the last hours.

“you fool, what have you done?!” said Jadwen with a hollow, despairing voice. Looking finally at Naves, “get this girl looked at by a Healer as soon as you can, and then go to her family and offer them anything they want to keep this matter silent, and hope they accept your offer”.

Naves stared at the old man in shock, no minor official of the realm, no matter how integral he may be to the smooth operations of an office, ever talked this way to a noble of a major house. Perhaps the old man has gone mad, he thought.

“and why would I bother doing such a thing, she’s nothing more than a plaything, a toy I picked from the dirt and will throw back into it once I’m done with it” sneered Naves.

“she is an imperial citizen, taken unlawfully” said Jadwen.

“so?” said Naves, was the old man really going to spew some nonsense about respecting other nations laws?

“So? Have you not been briefed about the empire? The emperor does not allow harm to come to his citizens, all are equal in his eyes, from the lowliest servant to one of the queen consorts on her throne”.

“Bah, emperor, I never met anyone who had seen him outside the royal court, I didn’t even see him when I came to present my credentials, only this slip of a girl going by the title of queen consort Elize.” Said Naves in a derisive note. “I don’t think even these imperials believe in their immortal emperor. It just gives their nobles a balancing point to curb the ambitions of the more reckless among them”

Quoting from a study he half remembered his tutor gave him to read on the political structure of the empire. Naves brought the relevant passage to his mind. “an assembly of nobles, democratically voting, for the good of the realm, with the Immortal Emperor to safeguard his people from abuse and tyranny”. with a sneer and a burst of Talent, Naves cut a fresh ribbon of the girl’s blouse, right under her left teat, as she cried in shame and pain, he sneered “so much for his “protection” eh”?

“You are a fool” whispered Jadwen. “the Emperor is real, real and powerful. Did they not tell you why you were sent here to replace the last ambassador?”

“why would I care about the failures of others?” said Naves with an arrogant flick of his hands. “I have nothing to learn from a fool, although I guess he probably just got bored from this dull place and sought some excuse to be recalled”.

“He was not recalled, he was destroyed” said Jadwen.

“Destroyed?” said Naves with amusement. “So he displeased the Shadow King somehow? Eh, probably gone native and soft, like you!” he turned to blame the old man.

“No, not by our master” said Jadwen, and then he felt it, as if a hand was pressing against his heart, the feeling every holder of Talent in this building was now feeling, the feeling he wanted to never experience again after the last time. Looking into the eyes of the arrogant fool in front of him, he saw incomprehension, turned to worry, and then turning into true fear as the world around them turned oddly flat and dull.

\------------

Leah was curled around her pain, these Shadowers were monsters, she could not believe any man could be so cruel and arrogant as the young man who has been torturing her for the past few hours. She remembered him vaguely from the week before, he has been arrogant and repulsive, and she wanted nothing to do with either him or his dark kingdom. And so, she ignored his rude comments and leering stares and went her way without giving him another thought.

And then last night, when she came home, she found her house empty, and before she could wonder where her father and mother went, a sensation of disconnection washed over her, and she felt herself slipping into a fugue state. When she woke, she was here, in this chamber of horrors, with this monster in human form who seemed to relish her screams and pain and humiliation.

She did not know how long she was there, hours, days, all was a blur of pain, and a rude, leering face staring at her with unholy desire and rude lust burning in it’s eyes, she could read a glimpse of the terror she was going to endure and prayed for a swift end. And then the door crashed open and this old man came in, she did not know why, she just curled around her pain, and fear, and… the pain was gone, she felt, suddenly, as if her whole body was bathed in sunlight, looking about, she stared in confusion. “My mind must have broken from the torture” Leah exclaimed in wonder. Looking about she could see that she was in a lovely garden, the sun was warm but not hot, fruit trees lined the garden wall and a bubbling fountain fed a gleaming pool in the center of the garden. She herself was laying on her back on a warm bench of a material she could not name, it looked and felt like marble but was supple to her touch, making it as comfortable as any bed. Looking at herself in wonder she saw that she now wore a bathing suit of lovely shade of green. She was clean as if she just stepped out of the bath and she felt whole as if she had a good night sleep.

“No child, your mind is quite whole, I can assure you” a light feminine voice laughingly said behind her, turning her head as she got up from the bench, Leah saw a lovely young woman, not much older then her, and wearing a teal colored bathing suit, coming along a path wound about the edge of the pool.

“My father decided that he should remove you from that disgusting place before he took the appropriate steps.” Said the woman.

“Your father?” said Leah with confusion, then she finally took a good look at the woman, and her knees automatically hit the grass as she knelt before her.

“oh, don’t do that.” Said the Imperial crown princess Isis, first daughter and Queen in training for the Empire. “Get up and let’s have some breakfast while we let father sort out this ugly affair” she said and gestured calmly with her Talent to summon a feast suitable for two young women of the empire to share.

\------------

Jadwen could not move his body. He could not even close his eyes. In front of him, Naves of the house warrior, nephew to the Shadowlord, servant and ambassador to the Empire from his highness, the Shadow King, was being unraveled, slowly, painfully, and without any mercy.

The Immortal Emperor looked like nothing much. A man, well proportioned, somewhat beyond youthful, and garbed in simple blue breeches and a white shirt, opened to show lightly muscled torso, there was nothing to indicate this was anyone of note beyond a silver circlet with a Sapphire gem at its center woven through his blonde hair, but his sea green Eyes were hard agates as he looked at the wreck of the man he was reducing to nothing.

There wasn’t anything I could do, thought Jadwen. It wasn’t even like it was back when I was a novice at the academy and the masters would pray on the youths. “to toughen you up, to teach you respect to your elders, to teach you to reach your highest levels of Talent” they would say. Even back then, when he barely could do more then flare a small spike of heat on someone’s skin, there was still a measurable level, a point you could see and perhaps some day aspire to reach with your talent.

This was like challenging a Snowstorm. Like trying to challenge a mountain to a shoving contest. The emperor came, and for all their power, the combined might of more then five dozen Talented people in the embassy, they were all pinned down beneath his power like ants.

Suddenly, he found himself facing the man. “Did I not warn you fools what would happen after the last time?” the emperor’s words exploded in his mind, each one stabbing a lance of pain into his brain.

“you… you did, great one” the words sobbed out his mouth, his throat felt as if molten lava has been poured down it, and only the power holding him prevented him from trembling like a leaf in the wind.

“and so?” the voice continued.

“He would not listen, and we did not know, when I heard her cry, I rushed in, I did, I could not convince him, I could not make him understand” Jadwen babbled, he could not turn his head, could not close himself to the horror before him, Naves was being unraveled before his eyes, he could not even scream, but his pain was echoing throughout the whole embassy, all Talents could feel it. Were made to feel it.

The emperor looked at him, and Jadwen could see no pity in his eyes, no mercy for a Shadow who was warned before.

“Three days” the voice echoed in his mind.

“your slaves and servants are free” the voice added. “in three days, this one will be consumed, those of you who remain, will then be removed from this place. Tell your king he and his are no longer welcome in the empire. I will not warn again”

With that, the emperor was gone, leaving jadwen to hope and pray he would survive this ordeal, and then to hope and pray he would survive his king’s wrath if he was returned…


End file.
